K300 Start 1985; Kuskokwim 300 Sled Dog Race

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.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1,300. In Bethel, we have a very slight snow covering on the ice. That snow covering does nothing more than give a little foot into the dogs. It certainly doesn't cushion the

trail at all and it's primarily ice trail with a slight snow covering. However, upriver, from Akiak on up, which is about 30 miles above Bethel, the slight snow covering disappears, and we have Blair ice conditions. Now, those conditions are not only hard for the dog to run on, but they're slippery for the dog to run on and treacherous for sleds that follow behind. So, I'm told that trail condition is the same from Akiak all the way to any act. They turn around point on the gusquim 300. It looks like these are the bottom of the stuff of conditions as you can find for a sled dog race, but all the racers here know what to expect and they're making preparations to plan for that kind of a trail, and I don't think it'll be as big a problem as somebody expect. Well, I have here in my hand the gusquim walking stick or better known as a trail marker. This is a new type of trail marker. It's very lightweight. It doesn't weigh more than a few ounces. What are its other properties? Well, for one thing, it's made to glow in the dark. If you drop a headlight on that from the long range, it blows. The second thing is, of course,

that it's very safe if you should happen to run into one of those trail markers. It's not going to hurt you or your dog team or your sled. It'll either bend or break off, which is far superior to injuring a dog or a mushroom or a breaking sled. It can be seen from a long ways because it sticks up high off the ground. It's easy to transport because it is so light and it's just a general all around good trail marker. The best we've had and it's this first year we've used them. There are some of these that are close to town and I've driven by and caught these in my headlights of my truck and they're real visible on the trails. Do you know how far apart they are out there? Well, we get various reports of how far apart trail markers are. The trail markers usually say they're about eight feet apart. The mushroom is usually say they're about eight miles apart, so I'm not ready to guess now how far they actually are apart. The Crescoquim 300 is an historic trail. It commemorates the male runs as many dogs sled races are doing these days and in honor of the mushrooms who ran the male in the early days here in Alaska and this trail is another

commemorative trail going up to Antioch. There's a little loop thrown in around white fish lake and maybe we can take a look at what the trail actually looks like and show people where it goes. It starts out here in Bethel and what's the first checkpoint, Myron? Accia Chuck is the first checkpoint. That's 18 miles up the river. It's a checkpoint that most teams just run right through with barely a stop just sign the name and on they go. The trail then winds along the Crescoquim River can more miles to the checkpoint of Accia which is the first place that anybody ever seems to stop for any period of time usually no more than five or ten minutes however. Then there's about a 13 to 15 mile run to Tulix Act which is a 50 mile run from Bethel. That's the first major break for most teams in the race. One might the first teams get in there. Well you can expect on these kind of trails then. The first team will get there four to four and a half hours from the time they leave Bethel so not only for a 30 to afternoon. Now from Tulix Act the race goes 50 miles to the next checkpoint

which is Lower Calskag. It's at Lower Calskag that the time differential from the start is made up. Teams are required to stop in Lower Calskag for a certain period of time based on when they started the race in Bethel. That's only three miles from Upper Calskag which is a food drop and another major stop for most of the racers. Calskag is about a hundred miles from Bethel. In Calskag the race goes 33 more miles to any act which is the turnaround point for the Crescoquim 300. Any act is also a major stop a food drop and a place where teams take our rest and prepare for the long journey home. From there the trail loops into the woods and out of the tundra to Whitefish Lake a distance of about 35 more miles where a remote checkpoint is located right near the Whitefish Lake area and from there it's 22 miles back to Upper Calskag. The second time the teams will have visited that checkpoint. The teams at Calskag, Upper Calskag usually take their last major rest, their last major feeding and then start the 100 mile trek back home

which takes them back through Tulix Act and Akiak. This time instead of going through Akiachuk as they did on the way up, the teams detour and go through Kwifluk, the final checkpoint on the race about 16 miles from the finish line. From Kwifluk home the trail goes on the river and back up onto the tundra near Bethel and into the no-man's land area just outside of the finish land here, the finish line here and right back to the same point we started the race. Well Meyer you've been over the trail more than one time and you came in once with no one ahead of you. Does it seem like it's 300 miles or is it longer than that? Well in all the time I've run it it's it's seemed like it's a little bit shorter than 300 miles. I would guess that it runs somewhere in the range of 285 to 290 miles but then all of the measurements that I've heard are approximations and mushrooms make their approximations based on how fast their team goes. I sure they don't have any accurate measurement but I would guess that it approaches 300 especially some years when they take certain bends around the river that are longer than other

years. All right one of the most important functions out on the trail is that of the checker and we have checkers in each of the village and many of them have have amassed help from the schools. Many schools turn out for the whole event when the when the mushrooms come through and we'd like to say a good morning to all of you folks and we look forward to talking with you further on but right here we have with us the race marshal this is Jim Strong of Hope and welcome to Bethel. Thank you it certainly a pleasure being here. Do you have any expectations of the race this morning? I expect it to be a relatively fast race a good race we have we have a lot of good teams a lot of good rookie teams and we're working very strongly at keeping those teams all the way around to the finish. There are how many teams signed up for this morning? 40 teams and do you think they're all going to go out of the shoot? Boy they should I would think so. This is a first time you've been race marshal. Do you have any special thoughts on being a race marshal as opposed to

being a musher? I think I'd rather be a musher it's a little more fun I think. Miron do you have any questions for Jim? Jim why don't you tell of yours out there what your race experience is? Oh I've been four times only a ditter rod completing all four times race dutter various two hundred and one hundred miles. The clam gulps the Montana Creek 300 the Montana Creek 200 the hope discovery race a couple times. You organized at least one race in the past haven't you? Two. I hope discovery race. That's near my life yes. What's your occupation yet? I'm a trapper and do some guiding. Where will you spend your time during the cusp of 300? Up and down the trail. How will you be traveling? By truck and plane. Well good luck Jim we hope you see you up and down the trail and hope that your job is a small job in this race. Well I hope so too. Thank you

Miron. Well we do have 40 teams signed up and we have teams from as far north as Fairbanks as far south as Kaliganac and Dillingham. Far east as St. Michael's? No it's west. St. Michael is west. It's far west as St. Michael's and the gnome area. What do you think of the fields Miron? Well I was looking at the field this morning and I noticed that I would call 28 of the teams that are in the race. Local teams in that they're from the villages that are considered part of the Bethel Service area, the lower Cuscoquim Yukon Delta and the upper, you know, upper Yukon of Cuscoquim Delta. That means 12 of the teams come from outside. That's a few less than we have had in other years and that means we have more village entrance in this race. Myself I find that to be encouraging because that means dog gracing of this this type long distance racing is growing out here in the villages. I wish we had a few more of the outside teams here this year. Sometimes that happens though for one reason or another this year perhaps the trail conditions the outside teams don't

make it in as in strong as numbers as they do other times. The addition of the village teams here adds an element of unknown to the race. We don't know what kind of team some of those teams are. They've got the trained in isolation. There's nobody seen them. Right. Some of them come here with without any experience and long distance racing at all but with dogs who are capable and that have been trained well and could do well in a race of this type. Others come without any experience in the Cuscoquim 300 or other major races but have done well real well in the local races in their village areas and teams like that are always a threat and usually every year there's one or two teams that are completely unknown that step right in and compete with a big shot. A recent example of added local was not really known for long distance racing expertise but came here last year and set the pace for for about 90% of the race and I expect there'll be probably at least one or two surprises and these shoes for you are much like Volka. Volka has made himself

a household word around the mushrooms here in Bethel. Be sure it has the the idea of an unknown stepping in and racing the likes of Rick Swenson and Susan Butcher and putting them to the real test to see whether they can catch him or not is is exciting experience for the people of the Delta here and block is a bit of a hero for that. Well to digress for just a moment how come you're not out there this year? Well I've already raced once this year and and believe it or not racers do get a little tired of racing. I raced two weeks ago in Minnesota and my team is ready to go again but I'm not quite so another fellow is racing my dogs in this race Nathan Underwood and you're in the John Bear grease classic back there in Minnesota and for the viewers who didn't know that he took second place in that race. Yes I did it was a wonderful race and I just hope that the Gus Quinn 300 is as much fun for these mushrooms as that race was for me. All right well we have back one very well known mushroom here in the Bethel area that's Jerry Austin. Jerry is a two-time Gus Quinn 300 winner. He's looking for his third win here this year

and this time he brought along another member of his family and that's Clara Austin and earlier this week I had the opportunity to visit with them and we'd like to share that interview with you right now. You're the first husband and wife team to run in the same race. We realized I had about a month after she entered and sitting around talking and started thinking if anybody else ever had it the same year I know and I did a lot. I think grown and birds did last year but we appear to be. Do you think that's going to be an advantage, Clara? No. Do you plan to travel together? That's been his plan since I decided to. Are you planning to leave him in the dust? Well I don't know I'll just go along. I wanted to try to see if I can keep up with him. How many dogs do you have between the two of you? I have nine. You know I've got I have eight dogs

and six remote possibilities. It's always a lot of fun. It's kind of a vacation for us to come down a week early and see our friends and find out how good in the trail is and to me conditions look just as good as they ever looked out here is that I was snorried after we get here and we got a half an inch of snow this morning that looked right. There's looks like it may snow in the next few days. That's just a lot of fun. I'm glad that Clara can come down so we can both have some fun. I think she'll probably pass me near the end. There this week you can probably see in the back of the shoot one team already in there. That's Jerry Austin. He's going out first this morning along with Tim Sampson who was a high school teacher down in Kipnook. Tim said if he when I talked with him yesterday if he could he would hold a banner up saying hello to his high school biology class down there. So we're saying it for him instead. Those smushers will be going out of the shoot precisely at 12 o'clock. There is

there is no such thing as the race starting late here in Bethel. And Marlin if you were running this race what would your strategy be this year? Well first of all you have to identify who the contenders the challengers are so that you can keep an eye on them throughout the race. You head out of the shoot and hope you don't have any trouble for the first 30 to 40 miles or even up to two weeks back where the basic plan is just to stay with the pack and not not get any real bad difficulties breaking slatter into your dog or anything like that. There's certainly a very little strategy that goes into great soccer that point. Do you think it's a real concern with these icy conditions about being able to stop in the first few miles? Yeah I don't know that anybody will be able to stop for sure and keep a team stop for a period of time in the first few miles. Some of them have handlers but that would be the big concern is to keep things under control or to get the two weeks out. Then the team start to settle out and most competitors will look around and see who's doing what and two weeks out and probably won't stay there very low.

You can't fall too far behind and we can't swim 300 and hope to be at the front at the end. From there they'll travel to Calskay or once you get to Calskay but contenders will have sorted themselves out and anybody in the Calskay checkpoint will be able to name you the top six or eight people that are likely to be contending all the way around. Now they probably will be teams that will rest very short at Calskay and continue on around. Others will attempt to stay there longer and keep more speed and more rest in their team so they can catch up and finish ahead at the end with a big push at the end. That's the kind of strategy that goes on this way. It's who's going to go out front who's going to lag behind and try to catch them at the end and that's what we'll be watching for. Well what about these rest stops? Some people take a few hours here a few hours there. Some people some years teams have taken eight hours in a checkpoint. Do you think we're going to see that anymore? You probably won't see any eight hour stops by contending teams this year. Of course if the trail conditions should change if we should get snow or a huge wind or something like that

perhaps a team would be better off to wait it out and see if the conditions improve. But if it's just like this there won't be any major stops. The race strategy has changed over the years. The dogs are better. People know what they can do. The more accurate they saw shorter rests enable a team to continue on it about the same speed. Of course if you take too little rest the dogs start to slow down and that can be trouble. Knowing the difference is a who wins. That's right. Let's explain some of the rules are very similar to the rest of dog watching rules around the state. Teams have a minimum number of dogs that they start with but I don't think we have a team starting off with any less than nine dogs here. There's no maximum. The team must finish with five dogs. Let's see there is mandatory gear that they carry. They have an axe or a hatchet and a heavy duty sleeping bag that will keep the warm in the storm. What are some more of the rules that are common to other dog sled races? Well one that isn't common is the time differential adjustment

in lower calcane. The teams are required to wait there a period of time that coincides with their starting position so that each team spends the same a while in the trail. Time on the trail in the first hundred miles. Now teams are required to give trail if a team comes from behind or wants to pass all the way around the trail until the no man's land which is three miles from the finish. Teams are required to check in and out of checkpoints. Teams are required to have to sign in. Sign in when they come into a checkpoint but they do not have to sign out as they leave. The team is required to allow their team to be checked by a veterinarian at any time along the race and a veterinarian can remove a dog from the team if the vet feels that that is the safe way of handling that particular dog. And at any time that a vet feels that a dog team needs to take more rest, he can require that and they will stay in the checkpoint for a little longer else. That's right. The race marshal has an ultimate control over all the teams and can require teams to wait in additional period of time or do other things that may affect his competitive ability in the race maybe even pay a fine if there seems to be a violation of one of

the rules. The race marshals in charge and the vet is in charge of all the dogs. Now why does the race time have been shortening up? It's been getting shorter and shorter every year. What do you attribute that to? Well of course trail conditions have something to do with it. The other thing is that as teams become familiar with the race route and familiar with how much rest their dogs can survive on, they shorten up their race strategy a little bit each year to see how fast you can go and how little rest you can get by with. We certainly approach the minimum last year. I don't know somebody might be able to do it quicker than 48 hours, but we have approached the minimum for covering 300 miles at least with the dogs that are available to us today. But if trail conditions were worse, certainly no one would attempt to try to do this race in two days. Well one of the big contenders this year and one of the names is on everybody's lips and on all the bidding sheets that are going around town is Joe Barney from Teller and he's a man who

has been training in isolation and but the word seems to have gotten out that he is a contender and there are a lot of people looking at his team. I had a conversation with him and his dog yard guest today and let's take a look at what Joe Bernie feels about being called a contender. That's about 20 pounds more than some people are running out. I only see a lot of people running 40, 40 pounders and stuff from 50 a large dog. Well I don't know I might be getting out of style or something. I'm not sure we'll see. You know the last one I ran the same team they seem to be okay. I've helped these girls run the chore for like four years now or so before years old and more than many of you have heard to me so I think they'll be fine. Have your training conditions been similar to the ones here? No, well really good training season. Well a lot of good snow really throws up early so you will have the freezing time. Well the freezing time but it might rub out the cold.

Where do you train? Well I train my bros right out of teller and I have a club in about 60 miles out of town. I train up to war and back and just on that tour basically. Is that near the coast? What's on the coast and then the club in the 60 miles inland so I'm wearing land and buck. So you've had plenty of long runs. How many miles do you think you have on your dogs here? I've wrote no I figure 1,700 miles on them. Do you think they've already peaked? I can't see they've already peaked there in good shape. You know they could stand to be physically a little tighter. The only thing I'm really worried about is this is a headiest I ever had in my nose. It means far as being fat. I can see it meant to be fat right now. A lot of people call you a contender for this race. How do you feel about being called? Yeah, it's sort of first time for me being called out so it sort of feels like a lot of pressure for me. I really don't like the publicity of being in car with a contender or anything that I suppose if you're going to be in competition there,

somebody will be mentioning you. If you're being good. No. Back to Cusco going 300 coverage. We're getting ready to see the first teams go out of the shoot. You may already see Jerry Austin in the shoot right over here on our left and shoot one and in shoot two will be Tim Sampson. One of the special things of the Cusco going 300 to make it more fun for the crowd is to have a double shoot start. It gives a little bit of competition in the shoot. You can see one team kind of edge the other out as they pick the trail out. The trail heads, well it's right across the lake here in Bethel and turns to live down there in Willow Patch and then it crosses what's called Sandra Bridge Road and heads on out in the Tundra behind town. So there's a little bit of there several good places in town to see where the race goes and there's lots of room here at the starting line so that people can see and there's

finally a quarter miles stream of cars parked down there because it's caught cold. The chair heads a little chilly here. The wind is making it a little bit uncomfortable for some of those guys that aren't dressed quite as warm as we might be. One thing about the double shoot barbed that you might mention is not just for the fans. It's also for the teams. That way we don't have as big a gap between the first and last team leaving the shoot. The teams have less difficulty than adjusting the time in CalSCAG and everybody has more of an equal chance. We get everybody out at about the same time. Now we didn't mention one thing. That's what happens to the dogs if they don't make it through the race. We do have drop dogs. It's three of the checkpoints. That's at two exact CalSCAG and any act. You can drop dogs at those points and they're brought back by the committee and returned to Bethel and held to the mushroom returns here. So if a dog is injured or gets tired or sick, the dog is left at the checkpoint and properly cared for by the vet and then brought back to Bethel. We have two teams in the shoot. It looks like we're just about

ready to roll. It is two minutes to start. You can identify the officials that you see with the stripes on their backs or the bands tied around their arms and the rest are all handlers. You can identify the mushrooms. They do have their names pinned on their backs and you'll be able to read them at some point when they go up and back. There is quite a lot of racket here in this shoot and it's a lot of fun to be here right here with a dog side view at all. This is a sound that you only find at the start of a dog race bar. Dogs you happen everywhere. There's nothing that quite compares with it. Let's talk about the two teams we have in the shoot now. Jerry Austin, of course, is not only a twice defending champion of the Custer Quinn 300. He is run in countless dog races throughout the state with strong finishes and most every race he's ever been in. He's raced and he had hit a lot numerous times finishing as high as third in 1982 and seventh in 1980. He's going to race the head hit a lot once again this year so he says this

is sort of a training run for him. Tim Sampson in the right hand shoot here in number two going out as a high school teacher from Kipnerk. That's a coastal village in the baffle area. We have one minute till the start. He started the Custer Quinn 300 one other time but scratched just in the other side of Ania. As a matter of fact, I think it was running in one of the tougher year races. He was and he's back here to finish the race this year. He sponsored by Ryan Kennels of Kipnerk in Santiago's restaurant in Frankfurt, West Germany. Now don't ask me. He gets the most sponsored by a German running a Mexican restaurant. That's pretty interesting. I wouldn't even guess how he came up with such a sponsor. There's many distinguished people down here in the shoot helping out Noel Koveyak from one of the previous year's races and these teams are running double sleds. Here's the countdown. Five seconds to the start of the Custer Quinn 300. And there off. There goes Jerry Austin. Tim is a break his stock over the starting line rope

and there he goes. Good looking start. Both of the first two teams went out with two sleds. Two riders on it. So that means three riders on the second team that went out. Tim Sampson. He led Jerry Austin to get a brief start ahead of him. Sampson had a hard time on hooking his hook from the starting line rope here and that left Austin with a little bit of a head start and Sampson's following a lot across the lake and they're on their way. All right. We see into the shoot number three Herman Morgan. He's 31 years old from Annie Mackie's a village technician for the Cusco Quinn native association and in shoot for a real popular muncher from the Yukon Charlie Fidke. He's 43 been mushing for 30 of those years and he calls himself a fisherman. Well Herman Morgan has been in a race already this year. He raised in the lower Yukon 150 and he finished 10th. Now that wasn't too strong a finish over there but the fact that he went over there and got those miles in the dog makes him one of the rookies that

should be watched for the potential rookie of the year award this year. Herman's got a nice looking dog team. He's done a lot of training up there in any act and he's confident that he's going to have a strong finish this year. Now Charlie Fidke has been in this race numerous times before. He has a line of dogs that's known throughout the state as being one of the toughest breeds going. He's got a well-strung-out team. He comes from the lower Yukon 150 where he finished first. He's got a team of many dogs all the boots on and he looks like he could be a contender here. The Charlie Fidke team has the hoo-shoo of dog handlers. He's got both Mike and Walter Williams. He's got numerous people surrounding him the race marshal. He is carrying a rider and no second sled. And neither is Herman Morgan but both are carrying riders. And teams three and four. Herman Morgan and Charlie Fidke. We'll see coming up in the shoot number five Henry Gus Johnson who is from Unilically 25 married with two kids and running dogs for nine

years. And guide Blankenship. A real popular mushroom back for his third cusp of going 300. He's 37 years old and is from Fairbanks two rivers area. He's called himself a full-time dog mushroom built houses on the side and he's come here to win this year. Well let's talk about Gus Johnson first. He just won the Norton Sound Portage 200. He finished first this year and he finished second last year. Now that's a tough race and nobody ever comes in here from Unilically with a bad dog team. Gus Johnson is an experienced racer and he is sort of a dark horse. No one mentions his name as a potential winner of this race but look out. He's also being spotted coach by Victor Catungen. I think he has a couple of Victor's dogs in there too and Gus Johnson is certainly a factor in this race. Of course Blankenship, guide Blankenship in the right hand shoot here has done well every time he's come here. He's got a real strong bunch of dogs. They're not the fastest team in the state but they certainly are capable of staying on the trail long hours and keeping up a steady

pace and he's always right there behind you no matter how fast you start out. He's being assisted here by race judge Steve Bush. Steve Bush is an anti-ac fellow who's run this race before and is a race judge for the first time this year. Guys having a little trouble with anxious dogs. He has six handlers on. How many dogs he got here? He's got 12 dogs here and six handlers and four people holding down his sled. So I say his dogs are ready for him. He has a strong team. He has the distinction of winning four in a row of the North American freight races that are held in Fairbank Beach here. That means he's got a strong dog team. And we hear the countdown. The choice is when to have the handler's leave here. These dogs are ready to go. Guide Blankenship in Gus Johnson. All right we see a ready to go in to shoot number seven is Terry Hoffman, a 36-year-old. I am airport manager from the Anneac checkpoint and on in shoot eight a local rookie Brian Sanders.

He's 28 years old says he's run in this race because that's all he's friends talk about. So he figured he might as well join it. I have noted Barb that just people going on a shoot here go out real wild and here we have one team that's already made a wrong turn out there in the lake in front of town. A team took her right hand turn when they're supposed to go left and looked like they're going. The exit out of the shoot if you can see in your screens at home is a wild one. It's bouncy and bumpy and people have to hang on in order to stay with their sled. Yeah that mushroom is down on his knees on the back of the sled runners there. Let's talk about Terry Hoffman. He's right been running dogs for about five years. He's running it because he enjoys it and he says he's gotten about 1200 miles of training in there up in the Antioch area. There we go and Brian Sanders here he's a maintenance man at the college and he's been putting in more training miles than almost anybody else here in Bethel and seems really prepared to go this year. Yeah Brian has been working hard he's got what he considers

to be 2000 miles on those dogs. He's the other day he said he had 10,000. That seemed like an after all he's been up. He's using a collection of dogs from around Bethel various dog yards including one of my former dogs I see up there in front looks like he's ready to go even though he's about 10 years old. Stella is one of his dog handlers and she's been one of his main sponsors this year in the race. We are the countdown. This is teams number seven and eight headed off in the 1986 Cascagum 300. I see Paul Lowell who is running Brian Sanders second sled. And ready to go all these teams are have been tethered out all morning long and they are just right here ready to go. We see number nine Sam Smith and the famous Blanco Wesley number 10 in this shoot right here. There we have an old timer who doesn't want to use

the handler doesn't want to use another sled. He's just got his team and a little bit of stuff in this sled and he's ready to go. All right Sam Smith is 38 years old. He is a cab driver here in Bethel. He's a tall man a big man that's a lot of way to pull around the sled. He's running under the name of the broken sled Kim kennels. He's been in Bethel's front races but this is his first distance race. And Blanco Wesley well he's 43 years old. He's from Portage Creek which is near doing him. He calls himself a fisherman and he's been running dogs for about 20 years. He has many of the dogs returning from last year. His lead dog is blacky and he says he only has 650 miles of training. Well of course sometimes we have to take some of those mushrooms statements with a little bit of grain of salt but of course he did have rough grating conditions down there in Portage and I would suggest that that slowed him down a little faster but with veteran dogs that have been through this once before it doesn't really matter if they've had a few last

or a few more miles they're going to know what they're doing and of course Blanco knows what he's doing so he's definitely a threat even if he only has 650 miles. All right I see Blanco has his name tag sewn on his jacket from a previous race so he's running with black with white letters everybody else's white with black letters. Both mushrooms sign out from the Bethel checker who's Kathy Finn standing over there she has each mushroom. Sign out verifying the number of dogs. Blanco is going to take him a rider with him this time and he's ready to go. Sand Smith from Bethel and Blanco Wesley a Portage Creek. We see coming up into shoot number 11 Joe to mental junior he's 30 years old from the village of Tuluxack one of the checkpoints along the way. He's a carpenter and a fisherman married to Sharon and says hello to his kids Olga Sonny Mildred and Iris. He trained in the Tuluxack area and one of our local favorites right here in our sentimental favorite John McDonald he's 35 years old and he is still heading up to the shoot.

John is our production team manager and we're running the show without him today and we're looking for him to come up into the shoot. Teams have how long to get into the shoot they have. Well they have to be able to go. All right we better report that John, Joe to mental junior will not be leaving the shoot at the designated time. There is a provision for that in the rules. If you're not ready to go at the time you're you're supposed to go you leave at the end of the race after the the last team in parts but you're still credited with leaving at the time you're supposed to leave. So Joe for one reason or another isn't ready to go and he will be penalized that amount of time in his overall calculations at Laura Calskag when he has to make up for his starting time. All right and it was my area it is John McDonald who's in the shoot. I can't imagine a production manager missing the start of the race and and this is not John's first trip out around the track. He is being assisted by his wife Beverly Hoffman and a lot of Hoffman's his dog handlers as you look up the line. He's got no

competition at the end of the line here today. He said he and Bev if had a team in every 300 Bev ran the race last year. He had dogs for about eight years now even back when it wasn't popular. He says he is also training to run the Ididorot this year. Yes he is going out without a main leader who got injured this past a couple of weeks but he does have a fairly looking dog team. One, two, one. Out in the single shoot this time. John McDonald. A huge cheer from the crowd. A real favorite. Certainly of ours. Up next is Steve Chamberlain. He's 39 years old from Antioch. This is not his first time around the Cusco 300 track and Mike Williams a very popular local mushroom from Aciac and he was rookie of the year. First time he ran the race in 83. He placed seventh that year. The Williams have had a racing kennel for years. Their dad Tim Williams has been a racer in this area years ago in the early 40s and he got the boys started in both of them have been in races countless races. Every year

they're in six eight or ten races in this area. They have a strong kennel. They have teams that are consistently in the top few of every race they get in and I look for Mike to be a continuing threat in this race. Mike took his team in and went to the Ferrandi races where he placed 17th one year. He, Walter Williams took the race, took the Ididarad trail a couple of years ago and we see Steve Chamberlain up here but we don't see Mike Williams up here yet. There are many teams in the team however I don't know if that's Mike or not. We're waiting to see if he's going to run. All right so we're looking at Steve Chamberlain right now. Steve is headed home. He has his family waiting for him up there in Antioch. His lead dogs cone had junior flash and bullet is being sponsored by Harold's air of anchor of Antioch and Lamont Albertson. He placed 19th in last year's K-300 and he won the sleep mute carnival in 84. So Steve has had some winning experience now and he really hopes to move up in the standings in the K-300 and take home some

more money and another belt buckle. Steve Chamberlain's experience in this race is going to help not he was in the running for rookie of the year last year so he had a real good team as first out him but he didn't win the rookie of the year this year he hopes to finish somewhere in the top 10. And there he goes Steve Chamberlain out of the shoot. Missing his place in line as Mike Williams we'll see what the disposition of that is a little bit later but we're looking right now at Doug Dorland is pulling into shoot number one and David Deal David Deal is over there right here in front of us in 16th position. David Deal is 34 years old. He's another Antioch dog driver. He's a school teacher up there and sends his greetings out to all the students in his classes. He's put in a thousand training miles in every type of condition and any act they've suffered the same whether we have the rest of the area and Doug Dorland well he's well at myron dog dog Dorland dog is an attorney here in town he's being assisted by

Phil Graham in line village flew down with his family to to help Doug out in in this race and what can you tell us about Doug Dorland? Doug Dorland I can tell you it works with me for starters I can also tell you that he's got the only color coordinator team in the race all of his dogs are black. I saw this team when it was one of the early ones to pull up and I noticed that and was amazed he has two letters of dogs in his team one of his own and one of mine and they all turn out to be black and so he has a color coordinator team. I have one piece of information that I just got from the race marshal he tells me that Mike Williams has scratched from the race and will not be started the race marshal also expects that Joe DiMantle Jr. who did not start will be starting but will be starting at the end of the pack. All right so Will still be here. Will look at him down with you. I see the Dave Deal has decided that one dog is not going to start out in the in the beginning he's going to ride out in the sled and it's just zipped him in there's nothing cuter and a little dog checking out the action out of the center of the sled bag. I often do that myself. I give one dog a ride

especially an older dog he doesn't want to start fast, waits down the sled a little bit slows down the team not a bad strategy. I don't think. All right so Doug Dolan will be first out he has a second sled with Phil Graham his handler and Dave Deal is grabbed his breaker his ice air and headed out into the sunset and for those who can't see where to go the trailer trucks is right there line the chute. We have up next Clara Austin of seat Michael's this is Clara's first race but not her first time on the back of a sled by any means and well all right and Herman Nelson Herman Nelson is up Galigan and he does not treat this race lightly either had a chance to speak with him yesterday and he is a very serious mushroom and trained with Gus truck nook and Blanco wasle down there

in Dillingham so he had some good good help he's 35 years old and this is his first distance race. Clara is 31 and she's from St. Michael she says load all her girls up there and is looking forward to going around the trail with lightning tiger and Tina. Herman Nelson of course is a rookie in this race but with his vast experience and the fact that he's been racing a lot in the Dillingham area and training with a guy like Blanco he'd have to be considered a threat for rookie of the year if everything goes well for him but in order to win that he's going to have to be Clara Austin who has probably some of the finest dogs that a rookie's ever brought into this race. Clara is using some of the best dogs that Jerry Austin has raised over the years and she's got lots of experience training and if she didn't get a feel of this race right out the back she's going to be a definite threat to rookie of the year as well. All right looks like Trag is running the second sled behind Clara Austin try to wager down and slow her down a little bit in the beginning. Herman Nelson is a handler Mike you're writing out on the sled with him.

Well we had dogs ready to go. Let's go up there. Oh okay we're just going to see coming up Mike just so in Kent Colton Walker two Bethel Mushers. Mike Gessaro took over Steve Lacotti's team Steve had an accident and broke his leg and was going to be unable to run and Mike had said Mike told us at the drawing he told him he'd help him out but had no idea it meant it'd be running the race for him and he pulled just stepped right in and started the training and he's got in about 1100 miles. Took time off from his job with the title insurance company here in Bethel and he's going for it. Kent Colton Bocker is 33 years old runs from the Kamikaze, Kent was here in Bethel and many listeners will remember that his wife Susie ran this race last year. Kent and Susie have been teaming up on this team for a number of years and this is Kent's first chance of race at Gessick 1,300. It's interesting that Colton Bocker and Gessaro have been neighbors and they've had their dogs

type yet next to each other for two or three years out on the edge of Bethel here and here they're starting out together at the race. Kent is being assisted here by the the guys from the Bethel group home Kent is the director of the group home here in Bethel and his wife Susie has come up from and will be writing out on the sled with him no doubt throwing in some last tidbits of advice where to stop and where not to stop. Kent predicts a 30th place finish this year I think he's got his tongue and his cheek as he predicts that but of course he knows his dog better we do but I suspect he's shooting it for a little bit higher finish than that. All right Mike Gessaro shaking the hands of the onlookers. Buck Wckowski, one of the shoot crew here. He's running the race several times and just wouldn't be the race without Buck down here helping out the shoot and the starting line in the headquarters. Here's the count down and Susie wraps on. There they go. Number 19. Let's see who's coming up.

I don't know who's coming up and Jacob Nelson. We're halfway through to starters of the Cossack Room 300 and my feet are frozen all the way through. What does that mean? I think that means that we'll be two stone ice pillars by the time we get finished here. It is hovering around Ciro there's a there is about six degrees of warmth and about 15 miles an hour went out of the northeast and it's not making it very warm today. This is the only Cossack Room 300 that I ever watched. I started every other one and that's the only time I've ever been cold here. So that tells us something about how tough it is to be expected. All right. We appreciate that Jacob Napoca here is he's building a snow machine. He has a two-look sack mushroom and he is village police officer and two-look sack. He's running the race to get some experience and it must be quite an experience if he goes off of that snow machine on him. Gary Mackle we ran the race last year. He's 28 years old. He's married and has a couple kids here in Bethel and he's trained only a

couple of hundred miles but he is looking forward to going around the trail. Gary had a late start because of work obligations but he decided he wanted to run it because he enjoys this kind of activity and so he's going to give it a try anyway. Napoca is a familiar name to Cossack Room 300 fans. He's a relative Elijah Napoca was in the first Cossack Room 300 and surprised everybody by finishing part of that year. I see somebody bringing up one more dog over here carrying Mackle East team bringing it up by Cheen. This must be the special one that little bit of snow machine out of the way over there. He's going to snow machine at the end of the few that's getting out of the way. Ah, trying to clear the sheep and the countdown for Jacob Napoca and Gary Mackle we starting up in this 85 K-300 race. I think Gary Mackle he's the first team that's got out with out of hand there without a slap. Well, coming up to Gary popular mushers, Dee Dee John Row 31 year old Fisherwoman from Bethel

and she's been in four of the Cossack Room 300. She's raced four I did a rods and she's a woman who knows what she's doing on the back of her sled. Her second sled is being handled by Milo Lewis and who has been helping her train giving rural support. Milo has also helped Alan Matthews who ran the race several years ago. Bucky Burrows is up there handling some of her dogs. He's flying race support with his his plane and helping set up the white fish lake checkpoint. She is signing in with Kathy Finn. We see Rick Mackle's team pulling up into the shoot he is well within the time he's not late at all. He's being assisted by Ron Kaiser and Janet Kaiser who have been instrumental in this race also. Rick's dogs are well disciplined. Look look like they've been in this situation once before and nowhere to go from here.

He has roots on about half of his dogs. We've had teams go out of here all voted and we had teams go out of here without any boots and now we've got one that's about half footed. Do you think not knowing the trail is going to be a disadvantage for Rick this year? Well it's not that difficult for him to find the trail but if the dogs know where they are sometimes it makes it run faster because they know where the finish line is. That can be a factor at the end of this race. All right so we have D.D. John Raul and we have Rick Mackie up. They are number 23 and 24. Ron Kaiser the out. Mackie's team is standing here with no handlers on it at all. Mackie's only taken 10. He brought 11 about what he's only taken 10 with him. That's one of the smaller teams in the race. All right there we go. Mackie is also going out without a handler and without an extra sled but I suppose seven I did rots. Did you enough experience that maybe you don't need that? Well Mackie got a little three second head start there but he put his hook

in again and waited for the time to go down. He couldn't hold him even though he had 10. He couldn't hold him at the starting line so they must be a star in much. All right we see coming into the first shoot. Sue Furman and her daughter rode up to the starting line. Teresa Bill her husband is on his second sled pulling that a little bit closer up to the front. Also in the this shoot is my carry didn't it was running with a kimchi sled bag here. I must be one of his sponsors. Well I think it's just more of a case of living in the same town and needing a sled bag. I don't know if he's sponsored by kimchi. All right Sue Furman is 33 years old. She lives in Flathorn Lake. Flathorn Lake has been running dogs for 21 years has gone into four. I did roto. Her high Spanish was 14. Mike Harrington is a McGrath. I'm not sure. We're always happy to see the McGrath mushrooms get down here. He said that he's been training under good conditions. I hope that won't be a disadvantage for him. It shouldn't be. I noticed he doesn't think he'll win the race. He didn't know how if any. But he predicts Joe Gandhi will win. That seems to be a safe

bet around here. Joe Garnie is the odds-on favorite. 30 second 30 second. Eric and if you run across him on the race drill you'll find he's one of the more happy go lucky rushers on the trail. He's always having a good time. Doesn't matter where he is in the race or how he's doing. He'll always give you a smile and a joke if nothing else. And he is being assisted here by Will Peterson. Will Peterson has come down from a grathis. This could possibly be the team that his dog is running in. And he's assisting us with the K-Ray K coverage that you're going to be going out to CalScak sending us reports. So we're glad to see him here. And Sue Furman is out for a second sled being driven by her husband Bill and Mike Harrington. Out of the shoot. And we have two more teams you're ready to go. Looks like it's Matt D. Salerno's is 29 years old and from known. He says a mining engineer up there. He says hello to his family. And Ron Parker a 37-year-old Bethelite. He's an administrator

here in town for the Parks and Rec Department. This is what he calls the learn by doing. This is one distinction. He's the largest fellow in the race. He weighs approximately 270 pounds. And so we know he's got strong dogs. Well he's running with a little bit of a quick count. You're two four six eight ten by eleven. That's not twelve. He's got twelve dogs out there. So that look and they look like they are wagging their tails and ready to go. He said his dogs barked over in this wooded area here in town that is dog heaven right over. It's not right now but David Simian and Charlie Fittgood, Sam Smith and Tim Sampson, Ron Parker, dogs are all over there. Kind of pumped around the baseball diamond. Matt D. Salerno's is regarded as a rookie to beat in this race. He has raced in the all Alaska sweepstakes in the known sweepstakes. He has what's described by many as a very fast dog team. And with experience he's

gained in those races which are similar in distance to the Casa Cone 300. He may be a rookie to contend with here. A rookie with a lot of experience in this length of race. Ron Parker says he entered this race this year to try and better what he did last year. We'll have a mushroom profile on him coming up sometime in the next few days from when I talked with him. And he plans to be running with Tim Sampson, Gary McElwee, Sam Smith and Dan Boyett. He's got a wife and three kids here in Bethel. And he's going to go at 300 more training miles on here. All right, Matt D. Salerno Saville and Ron Parker at Bethel, out on the 1985 Cresco 1-300. I've noticed some of the same handlers have been involved in about 14 different teams here. We got some professional handlers. I appear at a peers for the study line this year. People help one team out, run back, grab it out even, come up to the study line. Well, I'll tell you, these teams are tethered

out for about a quarter of a mile in two strings. And it takes real discipline to be able to move those dogs up, inch them up a little bit at a time, and have them not take off and go down the road. Ron Brennan is up in the left shoot. John Nickola in the right shoot. John is a relative newcomer to the sport of dog race. And he's only had one year of experience. He's a 21 year old. And he hopes to do well here. He has, he's hoping to finish the race in place pretty well. Ron Brennan is a position here in Bethel. He's a pediatrician and he runs dogs for recreation, but he's as recreated in starting a couple of I-ditter rods. He's had some most problems in those. And he has run the 300 before. So he finished 20th in the 1982-300 and he finished 36 in the 83 I-ditter rod. He's carrying one of his main leaders, Mr. Big and the sled with him. I guess Mr. Big has a sore shoulder and he doesn't want to risk injured it further on this icy start. But I'm sure Mr. Big will be back in the team before it too long.

Ron was a late entry into the 300. He thought about it for a long time before he finally gave in and put his money down. He's being assisted by one of the healthiest teams. He's got at least two physicians and three nurses out there holding down his dogs and they're all set to go. Ron had planned to run the I-ditter rod but decided that the last minute to run this race instead of the three and instead of the I-ditter rod I got scratched from the I-ditter rod. I see he's got his headlamp attached already. I don't know if he knows that but we don't. He must let him take it a long time to get to the next check. All right the timer at this morning is Mary Peac and she is one who gives us all the cues on the start the countdowns. Andrew Andrews in shoot number one. He's 38 years old from Gweef looking as a journey money electrician in Boylerman. He's married got two kids and he's been running dogs for about 10 years. And David Simian is 31 years old from Troft Bluff. That's a

little village. It's just a few miles up river from Annie. He's married with three kids. He's been running dogs for a couple of years. He runs dogs because he doesn't have a snow machine. I see David has only got 150 training miles on snow and icy conditions. That's not too many for this race but if he takes his time I think he'll probably do pretty well. Andrew Andrews has been in this race two previous times and proved each year. He's a former sprint racer from the Beffere who decided to give long distance racing a try and last year he was 14th in the Custer Quinn 300 and was quite a bit higher than that when he got to the village of Gweef look. Now tired dogs sometimes have a hard time going past their own dog yard and Andrew slowed down when he tried to get his team out of Gweef look to go home to Beffere. He did sometimes it ends up crossing. It's pretty high price. Andrew saw a real help. He helps out all year long in the Custer Quinn 300 and you'll find him at the meeting giving advice on trail and help. He's one of the people who

organizes the Beffere's sprint races every year too. Some of these guys have actually gone out and helped mark some of the trails on these guys from the villages. That'll probably be a little asset to them knowing the ends of where the trail is. Maybe a rookie but you don't put in the trail that helps. Cheers. So that's number 31 and 32. We see coming up team number 33. Dan Boyet and number 34. Blaze tinker. Number 34. Blaze tinker is from scam and bay. This is his second time in the race. I want you to take a look at the third dog back on the left and Dan Boyet's team. It's a half terrier, half husky. It's probably the most distinctive looking dog in the race. His name is Ditto and if you get a chance to see him on the trail, ask where his terrier is and you'll show it to you. It's a dog that's got more hair than any dog I've ever seen race.

The Custer Quinn 300 before. I was over in his dog yard and that dog did stick out. An unusual combination. Stan Boyet's 36 years old and he's from Beffere. He's been an administrator for the city up until the running of this race. He's married to Sharon. He has a son Patrick and he says he's put in about 800 training miles. Running the race seemed like a good idea to him at the time. We'll see how he feels about it. About 300 miles from now. Dan is using three of my dogs so I have a little special interest in watching him go around. He's also using the same handler I used in the John Bear grease race in Minnesota. Bob Nelson who just returned to Bethel yesterday for the Custer Quinn 300 from Montana. Now that's the vote. He has some other distinguished dog handlers. I see Billy Eisenberg who is a Cusco 300 veteran. Ron Kaiser is helping him out again. Mary Whitaker who ran headquarters for us last year. We have a very distinguished dog pushers. There's one dog in front of Blaze Takers sled that's not going to get cold.

That is for sure. He looks like he's related to a Moutan coat. He's got more hair on him than you're a parker right now, Barb. Well Blaze has two four six eight ten twelve. Looks like 13 dogs here. It's a long string of a bit of a stinger. And he's got a handler. Looks like Dr. John White's going to go out as Dan Boyett's handler. And the two of them are out and on the way. Blaze Tinker of Scam and Bay, the only coastal entrance that we have out there. I believe it is. Keep knacking as far as to that.